Test Tubes and Cocoa
by parallelecho
Summary: It's cold outside, and Marceline has a surprise for her favorite over-worked Princess.


Test tubes. Test tubes, and papers, and notes, and graphs currently littered Bonnibel's desk. She was deep into her research. Hastily, Bonnie picked up a vial and brought it over to the flask on the bunsen burner. Hunching forward slightly, with her tongue jutted to the side, Bonnie was about combined the two liquids when she had a thought.

Standing straight up right, 'how long had she been working again?' A quick shrug, she didn't care. Science was much too interesting, and there was far too much to discover for her to care about sleep. And with that, she leaned forward again, slowly adding the dark purple chemical to the light red one on the burner. The reaction occurred with sizzles and pops, the end result being some sort of neon orange.  
>Bonnie observed the mixture for a few more seconds before wiping her brow, then turned to pick up a pencil, writing numerous notes down.<br>Meanwhile, in the tallest tower of the Candy Castle, there was knock on the window. It was a small, quiet knock, almost inaudible. Then came another knock, louder this time. A pause. No one came to answer the knock, so naturally, the knocker jiggled the latch on the window. And with a satisfying "ka-chink", the window opened.  
>In floated a dark, almost fluffy looking, figure. The wind outside was cold and harsh, but as hard as the wind was, the creature closed the window with ease and quickly locked it. The creature was reclined with it's legs crossed, a protective hand over a satchel. It moved it's gaze towards the bed, and could instantly tell it was empty. With a flick of the wrist, all of the candles in the room were lit. With everything illuminated, Marceline could be seen wearing extremely warm clothes. She was covered from head to toe, from heavy jeans to a thick, over-sized jacket; topped with a scarf.<br>She took one last glance around the Princess's room, before shaking her head and floating through the door.  
>Humming softly to herself, Marceline hovered down the hallways of the sweet palace. She turned herself over to fly on her stomach as the door Marceline knew the Princess was behind came into view. A hand was raised for even more knocking, but before the knocking could even take place, Marceline heard a mute "pop" and a glass break. Well, at least she didn't have to knock again.<p>

Twisting the knob to open the door, she was met with a cloud of smoke and a coughing Princess. The Princess had yet to notice the vampire, and was currently fanning the smoke with her hand. Seeing that Bonnie could use some help, Marceline quickly took off her scarf and floated towards her friend, fanning the smoke with her article of clothing.

"Marceline? Is that you?" Bonnie croaked, the smoke now dissipating.

With the smoke now gone, Marceline could guess what happened. As she wrapped her scarf back around her neck, she could clearly see the broken beaker on the floor. Her best bet was that brainiac here mixed two sciency things that should NOT have been mixed, and something exploded. This was NOT the first this had happened, and it would NOT be the last time either. Marceline's eyes quickly checked the Princess for injury, and once she was sure the Princess dawned no wounds, she replied.

"The one and only, Marceline the Vampire Queen." Marceline exclaimed as a small smirk appeared on her face. "I'm here to rescue you from all this junk."

Bonnibel, having since stopped coughing, carefully maneuvered around the broken glass towards the broom and dust pan she kept in her lab for just such an occasion.

"Marceline," she began as she took hold of the broom handle, "perhaps another time. I'm just about to make a breakthrough!" Bonnie shouted as she started sweeping up the glass.

"Breakthrough, huh?" Marceline deadpanned with gesture to the mess on the floor. Bonnie just scoffed at the vampire, and handed her the dust pan. Slightly disgruntled, Marceline held the dust pan in front of the pile Bonnibel had swept.

"Come on Bonnibel, I know you could use a break." Marceline whined as Bonnie swept the glass into the dust pan. The use of her full name did not go unnoticed by the Princess, she sighed, but she didn't address it. Bonnie took the dust pan from the vampire and threw out all the broken glass into the trashcan by her desk.

"Besides," Marceline mused as she kicked back into the air, "I've got a surprise for you." She grinned, Marceline could tell by the look Bonnie's face, there was no way she'd refuse.

"I suppose I could use a break..." Bonnibel mused, resting the broom against the wall. She crossed her arms, "what did you have in mind?"

"Glad you asked! But you won't get an answer." Marceline stuck her hand out to the Princess. Bonnibel sighed again.

"Of course I won't..." Bonnie grumbled as she took the vampire's hand. She was unexpectedly pulled onto said vampire, and just like that, Marceline flew the two of them towards the window. Having practiced before, and from the outside too, opening this window was easy. She flew them up a little bit higher than the castle and halted, Bonnibel assumed it was just so she would have to rely on the vampire in case she fell. How mean. She tried situating herself, but kept looking down, so she just settled on clinging for dear life. Marceline took notice, and sat back, allowing the Princess to relax slightly against her. Then wrapped an arm securely around Bonnibell, making the Princess relax completely. The two sat in quiet for a few minutes, Marceline looking up at the sky with Bonnibel draped over her. Bonnie thought she would get cold outside at first, but she hadn't even shivered once. She supposed it was Marceline's thick jacket, and nuzzled into a bit more.

"So..." Bonnie started, "what was that you said about a surprise?" Marceline looked down to see Bonnie try to stifle, and fail, a yawn.

"That's right! Thanks for reminding me, glasses." She teased lightly, reaching into her satchel. Bonnie payed no mind to the nickname, peering over to the bag with curious eyes. Marceline let out a small "Aha!" as she finally found what she was feeling around for, and pulled out a small thermos.

"Careful, it's a little warm." the vampire warned as she handed it to the Princess. Bonnie's gaze fell on the container, then to Marceline, then back to the thermos. With a small shrug, she twisted the cap off. Once it was open, steam poured out of the top.

"Go on," Marceline urged, "give it a taste. I made it myself." Now Bonnie was concerned, Marceline made it? What could it possibly be? She was very hesitant to find out, but with Marceline watching her close, what choice did she have?

With a gulp of fear, she brought the thermos to her lips and took a swig of its contents. Instantly, she recognized the flavor and was quick to guzzle more down. Once she had polished off nearly half the container, she lowered it down.

"Hot cocoa," Bonnie half whispered, "you made hot cocoa?"

"Yep!" Marceline replied smugly, "All by myself!" Bonnibel grinned and rolled her eyes.

"All by yourself, huh?" Bonnie inquired, a bit skeptical.

"Well, I mean, Tree Trunks helped a little bit, but I did most of it..." Marceline muttered and looked away. Bonnibel just smiled.

"Well it's very good. Very sweet, just how I like it." The Princess complimented, as she took another sip. Marceline quickly pulled her scarf up over her mouth, but matter how hard she tried hiding her smile, Bonnibel did indeed see it.

Almost absentmindedly, Bonnie went to take yet another sip when she heard a small chuckle.

"What?" She raised an eyebrow at the vampire.

"You have a lot of snow in your hair." Marceline laughed, motioning towards the Princess's head.

Bonnie brought a hand to her head and indeed found it cold and slightly damp. She tilted her view to the sky, and found millions upon millions of little white specks floating down.

"When did it start snowing? I hadn't even noticed." She inquired.

"Well," Marceline pondered, tapping her chin "I'm guessing you didn't notice because of how hard you worked that noggin." Knocking Bonnibel's head light for emphasis, but her hand was quickly swatted away.

"When I took the cocoa out." She muttered, "Speaking of which! Fork it over, I want some." Bonnie shook her head and smiled at the vampire's bluntness, but handed her the thermos regardless.

"Will you take me in soon?" The Princess inquired, yawning. Despite the sugar she just drank, she was still exhausted from her work in the lab. Marceline was mid-drink when she asked, but lowered the cocoa to answer.

"Of course." Was her only reply, as she was eager to pull back the warm liquid to her cold lips. But she did not, once she heard what the Princess said next.

"Will you stay with me?"

It was said very nonchalantly, as the Princess closed her eyes and relaxed against the vampire. She was tired, so tired. So tired in fact, that she hadn't even realized what she asked. And by the time she did realize what she asked, she had her answer.

"Of course." Marceline repeated, just about beaming.


End file.
